S54 ignition coils: Okada Projects Plasma Direct, Bavauto, others?

[iPhoneEngineer]

Hey all,

I\'ve done my due diligence in searching not just this forum but the web too, and really haven\'t found that much info. I have the VT2-500 and am experiencing hesitation in certain driving conditions, but since ESS does not support non-OEM headers (I have Active Autowerke ones), they will not work through any tune issues with me.

I don\'t want to go through another header replacement right now and would rather invest in some powerful coils that will have better success in burning a transiently rich mixture. The only options I\'m aware of (willing to consider others!) are the famed Okada coils and the less consistently reviewed Bavarian Autosport offering. The Okadas in particular actually perform multiple quick sparks following a much larger initial spark.

Does anyone have experience with these or other aftermarket coils on the S54? The Okadas are not completely out of my price range, but at $1200, I\'d go with the BavAuto ones at just $234 if they are a substantial improvement over stock.

[ZStig]

The bavauto ones look like a great deal to me, plus they're RED up top. I may replace mine

[Beedub]

youve just reminded me to get these ordered.....

ill order some okada coils and let you know what i think...... ill keep an eye on the AFR to see if i notice a change......

expensive experiment though........ ow well, ill order em tomorow.

[iPhoneEngineer]

Originally Posted by Roffle Waffle

The bavauto ones look like a great deal to me, plus they're RED up top. I may replace mine

I've heard good reviews of the Bavauto ones, and also read condemning reviews where multiple coils failed within a short period of ownership. Little information is available about their engineering or manufacturing quality...

However, they're so cheap compared to the Okada's, it's almost worth just taking the chance. As long as they function people seem to agree they are a noticeable improvement over stock, and if they blow up you haven't lost that much in the scheme of the Okada's price.

Beedub--awesome, thanks! I am so ready to pull the trigger on better ignition at this point now that I know my headers are probably causing suboptimal mixture that the ignition system needs to be able to power through, so if you love the Okada's, they'll be on order shortly thereafter. Roffle, if you decide to go the other route, we'll have a fresh opinion on both! haha

[iPhoneEngineer]

Also, for what it's worth, I've found multiple sources citing as much as a 3MPG fuel economy gain from using stronger coils. It sounded too good to be true when I first heard it, but several unbiased (non-retailer) drivers have found the same.

"Lastly, we then decided to check out Bavarian Autosport's $450 [Currently $259 for S54] high performance ignition coils. If the combustion chambers required more spark, these were going to show it.

While peak power and torque didn't change, it appeared the coils had smoothed the graph significantly, recovering up to 3.5hp at 5900rpm.

Given the several months we've now had the coils on the car, we've witnessed the other benefit Bavarian Auto claimed - improved fuel economy, which went from 21mpg previously to 24mpg average (over 27mpg highway, fully loaded), according to our calculations at the pump.

Driving roughly 15,000 miles a year at $4 a gallon, we were looking at around $350 in fuel savings annually."

Despite the language in favor of the Bavauto coils, I'm leaning towards the Okada's because of their unique multi-spark technology which I think could really help us FI guys get a full and complete burn every time without fail. It's worth noting however that this technology also usually foils a dyno's RPM sensor, though, so that can be problematic. From what I can tell, the Bavauto coils perhaps have a better design that delivers a stronger single spark, but it's still just one spark.

[iPhoneEngineer]

Well, shoot. AJ says the stock coils are well designed and have proven themselves even on 800HP S54 setups. ESS doesn't recommend nor support any aftermarket coils.

Since I certainly can't forfeit ESS support at this stage of my kit, I guess that means if my new spark plugs don't cure the hesitation, I will be forced to swap the headers again. The hesitation is too substantial and common in my everyday commute (very much unlike a usual commute) to live with as-is.

Beedub, if you go ahead and swap them anyway, I'm still really interested to hear your report as I will probably purchase them in a few months after my kit is sorted--probably at the same time as water/meth which voids the ESS warranty as well (I believe).

[Beedub]

Originally Posted by iPhoneEngineer

Well, shoot. AJ says the stock coils are well designed and have proven themselves even on 800HP S54 setups. ESS doesn't recommend nor support any aftermarket coils.

Since I certainly can't forfeit ESS support at this stage of my kit, I guess that means if my new spark plugs don't cure the hesitation, I will be forced to swap the headers again. The hesitation is too substantial and common in my everyday commute (very much unlike a usual commute) to live with as-is.

Beedub, if you go ahead and swap them anyway, I'm still really interested to hear your report as I will probably purchase them in a few months after my kit is sorted--probably at the same time as water/meth which voids the ESS warranty as well (I believe).

thats drastically put me off.... i seriously dont see how coils would effct the running of the kit unless for the better.... mmm i guess if mine fail ill do it then.

[ZStig]

Originally Posted by iPhoneEngineer

I've heard good reviews of the Bavauto ones, and also read condemning reviews where multiple coils failed within a short period of ownership. Little information is available about their engineering or manufacturing quality...

However, they're so cheap compared to the Okada's, it's almost worth just taking the chance. As long as they function people seem to agree they are a noticeable improvement over stock, and if they blow up you haven't lost that much in the scheme of the Okada's price.

Beedub--awesome, thanks! I am so ready to pull the trigger on better ignition at this point now that I know my headers are probably causing suboptimal mixture that the ignition system needs to be able to power through, so if you love the Okada's, they'll be on order shortly thereafter. Roffle, if you decide to go the other route, we'll have a fresh opinion on both! haha

indeed. I'm gonna diagnose my slightly imperfect idle first, and if its one of the coils, I'll get all 6 bavauto coils. I don't see how they could perform worse than oem in our situation

[onelove]

Factory coils should be more than sufficient, unless we're talking a car with 90-150k miles on it. What are your spark plugs gapped at ?

2 ESS VT-500 cars and both have hesitation / idle issues ? It's not the coils, not the headers (not by themselves at least).

[Beedub]

Originally Posted by onelove

Factory coils should be more than sufficient, unless we're talking a car with 90-150k miles on it. What are your spark plugs gapped at ?

2 ESS VT-500 cars and both have hesitation / idle issues ? It's not the coils, not the headers (not by themselves at least).

mine doesnt?? perfect idle and absolutly no hesistation anywhere in the rev range, ..... im on Ess recommended setup ;-)

iphone in particular has had nothing but problems, ess are attributing it to his non supported AA headers causing wierd AFRs.

alot of tom issues were caused by the secondary 02 sensors not being functional, again not an issue of the ess kit.....

fr8t, jmb600, me, rabbit, tonesta all have powerful and reliable ess cars.

come on now, lets get the facts straight ;-)

[ZStig]

Originally Posted by onelove

Factory coils should be more than sufficient, unless we're talking a car with 90-150k miles on it. What are your spark plugs gapped at ?

2 ESS VT-500 cars and both have hesitation / idle issues ? It's not the coils, not the headers (not by themselves at least).

the oem plugs are pre-gapped from the factory IIRC. iphone has no idle issues, I have very minor ones

[iPhoneEngineer]

Originally Posted by Roffle Waffle

the oem plugs are pre-gapped from the factory IIRC. iphone has no idle issues, I have very minor ones

I sure hope the plugs are pre-gapped; as far as I could tell they aren't used in many other applications besides the S54. I'm replacing mine tomorrow (they arrived today).

As far as I know, Roffle hasn't had any hesitation issues while driving. I do, in certain more demanding conditions where exhaust flow is low--most annoyingly, when coming of heavy throttle and moving to light deceleration throttle, without completely closing the throttle. The widebands might be positioned in such a way that exhaust flow at these slower flow rates avoids them or otherwise fails to get a good, quick read. This was NOT a problem with the ESS N/A tune with the SAME headers--I believe it is because the Alpha-N setup (no air flow meter of any kind) of the VT2-500 is even more reliant on wideband feedback than the stock Z4M engine management.

I suspect the new plugs will help (Roffle's car has the same milage as mine and he noticed relevant benefits from replacing the plugs; both of our cars had periods of several hundred miles of rich operation sorting out early kit issues). Was really looking forward to the Okada coils, though, because I can see nothing but good a stronger spark with several rapid successive sparks could cause. It has absolutely no effect on the timing of the first spark, just a "get it fucking done" attitude to commencing the combustion process, all during the course of the power stroke.

I'd still like to hear from anyone who has upgraded coils and noticed the benefits--I've heard several other stories but not enough.

[ZStig]

my Bavauto coils came in today, I'll post my impressions tomorrow

[Beedub]

Originally Posted by Roffle Waffle

my Bavauto coils came in today, I'll post my impressions tomorrow

pics please???

[ZStig]

I'm not home yet. will post pics. I also finally took pics of the blower installed too last night, as I adjusted the clamps to perfection

[iPhoneEngineer]

Originally Posted by Roffle Waffle

I'm not home yet. will post pics. I also finally took pics of the blower installed too last night, as I adjusted the clamps to perfection

I'd love to see, eager to hear how the Bavauto coils perform too. Did you clock your blower? I would like to but am not sure what other piping adjustments will have to be made to do that. I'll watch your VT2-500 thread for the pics/discussion.

[ZStig]

Not clocked, the soft pipe is slightly pinched just like on yours, but its not a priority for me right now

[MPOWER78]

i got the bavauto coils in May, and today one of them gave out !! cylinder # 3 missfire . to me they are not a good buy and you have to mess with the plug to get them to go in !! the only thing nice about them is the red clip on top of the coil , so im going to replace them with the o.e. ones .

[Beedub]

iphone tom, if you look back to my threads you'll see the postion of the clocked block, once in the correct position the braided line under the blower will be pointing straight down :-)

[ZStig]

bavauto coils installed. Had to push them in a bit with a flathead screwdriver to sit in the power connectors perfectly. the idle is smooth now SOMETIMES, but most of the time it goes in waves where it moves up and down by about 50rpm. I shot a video, but in the video it was perfectly smooth that time. I may have a very very minor vacuum leak.

Hard to say if I made any power, since the car feels so different depending on the ambient temperature.

I'm pretty sure that mileage went up though, I saw 25mpg on the highway at 80mph. I wouldn't be surprised to see my overall MPG go up by a full 1 or 2 mpg. I'll report after a few filled tanks with measurements. But if it does go up in efficiency, thats a good long term investment for me

[Beedub]

Originally Posted by Roffle Waffle

bavauto coils installed. Had to push them in a bit with a flathead screwdriver to sit in the power connectors perfectly. the idle is smooth now SOMETIMES, but most of the time it goes in waves where it moves up and down by about 50rpm. I shot a video, but in the video it was perfectly smooth that time. I may have a very very minor vacuum leak.

Hard to say if I made any power, since the car feels so different depending on the ambient temperature.

I'm pretty sure that mileage went up though, I saw 25mpg on the highway at 80mph. I wouldn't be surprised to see my overall MPG go up by a full 1 or 2 mpg. I'll report after a few filled tanks with measurements. But if it does go up in efficiency, thats a good long term investment for me

what you do see vacuum at warm idle???? it should be -21 to -19 this is pretty much what you should see on the s54 motor..... i see a solid -20 vacuum on warm idle..............

[ZStig]

yeah I'm at -20 at warm idle, but it fluctuates ever so slightly with the idle RPMs